Wednesday, June 07, 2006

The Valerie Plame Leak and a Beheading in Syria

Why did Lockheed hire James Comey, the deputy AG who appointed Patrick Fitzgerald to the Plame case? (One of the stories below has more information on him.) Comey's job was subsequently filled by Robert McCallum - A Skull & Bones man. You know frat boys ...

Paul Johnson, beheaded in Syria, was a Lockheed engineer. The murder was blamed on Al Qaeda, but Wayne Madsen's sources say they didn't do it. Syrian police - trained by DynCorps and other equally foul US "contractors" - are the chief suspects (another story below), in league with a killer trained by Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) - the same company that set up the infrastructure at the NSA used for all those phone taps under Michael Hayden's command, the parent of DynCorps At the behest of whom? Many researchers suspect strongly that Johnson worked for Valerie Plame's business front Brewster-Jennings, Inc., and there were a score of murders in the Middle East and elsewhere after her CIA status was leaked. Johnson was probably one of them. Lockheed is keeping a seal on the role of State Department's Marc Grossman - and the Johnson murder, and others that resulted from the leak, in the course of an investigation of State Department officials involved in the nuclear black market - AND THIS PROTECTS THE ENTIRE BUSH ADMINISTRATION. Lockheed has interests in the executive branch. A key suspect in the Plame leak is Grossman (one of the officials General Mahmoud met with in Washington - Mohammed Atta's pay-master, director of Pakistani intelligence), a Lockheed lobbyist at Cohen Group. (Two Locheed Martin directors are executives at William Cohen's lobbying firm. BTW, Cohen is not a registered lobbyist, and you have to wonder how the firm gets away with that.)

Fitzgerald knows of the murders and has said nothing. The Plame fiasco is much deeper than the press lets on.

Plame´s CIA network was compromised and many were killed as a result of The White House Bush-Cheney leaks in violations of National Security Laws and murder of U.S. CIA Federal Agents.-------------------------http://www.lgtinc.org/categories/Education/

And yet the leaking of Valerie Plame's covert identitytruly did place this country in grave danger and mayhave even lead to the death of a covert CIA agentassociated to Valerie Plame Wilson. Wayne Madsen, areporter and former NSA employee, has claimed, "CIAsources report that at least one anonymous star placedon the CIA's Wall of Honor at its Langley, Virginiaheadquarters is a clandestine agent who was executedin a hostile foreign nation as a direct result of theWhite House leak." -------------------------http://www.counterpunch.org/butler06252004.html

the murders in Saudi Arabia of American expatriatesand the murders of foreign workers in Iraq areinextricably linked to American conduct in the regionis undeniable. Nick Berg, Paul Johnson and Kim Sun-ilwere all dressed in the same orange jump-suits priorto being murdered. It is no coincidence that theoutfits and colours chosen for their murders were thesame colour and style as clothes worn by detainees inGuantanomo Bay and Abu Ghraib.-------------------------http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/7/3/16838/88864

Sensitive CIA operations that were compromised by theleak included companies, government officials, andindividuals associated with the nuclear smugglingnetwork of Pakistan's chief nuclear scientist AbdulQadeer Khan. In addition, the identities of U.S.national and foreign agents working within theheadquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agencyin Vienna, North Korea's nuclear laboratory inYongbyon, Pakistan's Kahuta uranium enrichment plant,banks and export companies in Dubai, Islamabad,Moscow, Cape Town, Tel Aviv, Liechtenstein, Cyprus,and Kiev, and Kuala Lumpur, and government agencies inLibya, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Iran were severelycompromised. The CIA has reportedly given Fitzgeraldhighly classified details on the damage done to theCIA's WMD tracking network.------------------------http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2005/10/plamegate_updat.html

Paul Johnson is the one this citizen thought was amost likely asset- very good proximity to their warand transit capabilities and even someone to get aninside track on any pilot listings for hijackers-intraining...-------------------------http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:dCFWuHpAqxYJ:lawnorder.blogspot.com/2005/07/plame-actual-damage-caused-by-that.html+wayne+madsen+and+plame+leak&hl=en&lr=&strip=1

7/3/2005

Plame: The actual damage caused by that leak (FTW)

The CIA Director's job by definition, whether otherslike it or not, is to be able to go to his President andadvise him of the real scientific data on foreign resources(especially oil); to warn him of pending instabilityin a country closely linked to the US economy; and to tellhim what to plan for and what to promise politicallyin his foreign policy. In light of her position in the CIA'srelationship with Saudi Aramco, the outing of Valerie Plamemade much of this impossible. In short, the Bush leakthreatened National Security.

COUP D'ETAT:The Real Reason Tenet and Pavitt Resigned from the CIAon June 3rd and 4th

Valerie Plame's career (at least the covert part)instantly ended. The actual damage caused by that leakhas never been fully appreciated

Not only was Plame's cover blown, so was that of hercover company, Brewster, Jennings & Associates. Withthe public exposure of Plame, intelligence agenciesall over the world started searching data bases forany references to her (TIME Magazine). Damage controlwas immediate, as the CIA asserted that her missionhad been connected to weapons of mass destruction.However, it was not long before stories from theWashington Post and the Wall Street Journal tiedBrewster, Jennings & Associates to energy, oil and theSaudiowned Arabian American Oil Company, or ARAMCO.Brewster Jennings had been a founder of Mobil Oilcompany, one of Aramco's principal founders.

According to additional sources interviewed by WayneMadsen, Brewster Jennings was, in fact, a wellestablished CIA proprietary company, linked for manyyears to ARAMCO. The demise of Brewster Jennings wasalso guaranteed the moment Plame was outed. It takesyears for Non-Official Covers or NOCs, as they areknown, to become really effective. Over time, theybecome gradually more trusted; they work their wayinto deeper information access from more sensitivesources. NOCs are generally regarded in the communityas among the best and most valuable of all CIAoperations officers and the agency goes to greatlengths to protect them in what are frequently veryrisky missions. By definition, Valerie Plame was anNOC. Yet unlike all other NOCs who fear exposure andtorture or death from hostile governments andindividual targets who have been judged threats to theUnited States, she got done in by her own President,whom we also judge to be a domestic enemy of theUnited States. Moreover, as we will see below, ValeriePlame may have been one of the most important NOCs theCIA had in the current climate. Let's look at just howvaluable she was. ARAMCO According to an April 29,2002 report in Britain's Guardian, ARAMCO constitutes12% of the world's total oil production; a figurewhich has certainly increased as other countries haveprogressed deeper into irreversible decline. ARAMCO isthe largest oil group in the world, a stateowned Saudicompany in partnership with four major US oilcompanies. Another one of Aramco’s partners isChevron-Texaco which gave up one of its board members,Condoleezza Rice, when she became the NationalSecurity Advisor to George Bush. All of ARAMCO’s keydecisions are made by the Saudi royal family while USoil expertise, personnel and technology keeps the cashcomin

All of ARAMCO’s key decisions are made by the Saudiroyal family while US oil expertise, personnel andtechnology keeps the cash coming in and the oil goingout. ARAMCO operates, manages, and maintains virtuallyall Saudi oil fields – 25% of all the oil on theplanet. It gets better. According to a New York Timesreport on March 8th of this year, ARAMCO is planningto make a 25% investment in a new and badly neededrefinery to produce gasoline. The remaining 75%ownership of the refinery will go to the only nationthat is quickly becoming America's major worldcompetitor for ever-diminishing supplies of oil:China. Almost the entire Bush administration has aninterest in ARAMCO. Page -12- The Boston Globereported that in 2001 ARAMCO had signed a $140 millionmulti-year contract with Halliburton, then chaired byDick Cheney, to develop a new oil field. Halliburtondoes a lot of business in Saudi Arabia. Currentestimates of Halliburton contracts or joint venturesin the country run into the tens of billions ofdollars. So do the fortunes of some shady figures fromthe Bush family's past. As recently as 1991 ARAMCO hadKhalid bin Mahfouz sitting on its Supreme Council orboard of directors. Mahfouz, Saudi Arabia's formertreasurer and the nation's largest banker, has beenreported in several places to be Osama bin Laden'sbrother in law. However, he has denied this andbrought intense legal pressure to bear demandingretractions of these allegations. He has majorpartnership investments with the multibillion dollarBinladin Group of companies and he is a formerdirector of BCCI, the infamous criminal drugmoneylaundering bank which performed a number of veryuseful services for the CIA before its 1991 collapseunder criminal investigation by a whole lot ofcountries. As Saudi Arabia's largest banker he handlesthe accounts of the royal family and - no doubt -ARAMCO, while at the same time he is a named defendantin a $1 trillion lawsuit filed by 9/11 victim familiesagainst the Saudi government and prominent Saudiofficials who, the suit alleges, were complicit in the9/11 attacks. Both BCCI and Mahfouz have historicalconnections to the Bush family dating back to the1980s. Another bank (one of many) connected to Mahfouz- the InterMaritime Bank - bailed out a cash-starvedHarken Energy in 1987 with $25 million. After therejuvenated Harken got a nobid oil lease in 1991, CEOGeorge W. Bush promptly sold his shares in apump-and-dump scheme and made a whole lot of money.Knowing all of this, there's really no good reason whythe CIA should be too upset, is there? It was only along-term proprietary and deep-cover NOC - wellestablished and consistently producing "take" fromARAMCO (and who knows what else in Saudi Arabia). Itwas destroyed with a motive of personal vengeance(there may have been other motives) by someone insidethe White House. From the CIA's point of view, at atime when Saudi Arabia is one of the three or fourcountries of highest interest to the US, the Plameoperation was irreplaceable.

James Pavitt was Valerie Plame's boss. So was GeorgeTenet.:

Tenet's resignation, which occurred at night, was thefirst "evening resignation" of a Cabinet-levelofficial since October 1973 when Attorney GeneralElliott Richardson and his deputy, WilliamRuckelshaus, resigned in protest of Richard Nixon'sfiring of Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox.Many regard this as the watershed moment when theNixon administration was doomed.

SAUDI ARABIA Given that energy is becoming the mostimportant issue on the planet today, if you were theCIA, you might be a little pissed off at the Plameleak. But there may be justification to do more thanbe angry. Anger happens all the time in Washington.This is something else. One of the most importantintelligence prizes today - especially after recentstories in major outlets like the New York Timesreporting that Saudi oil production has peaked andgone into irreversible decline - would be to know of acertainty whether those reports are correct. TheSaudis are denying it vehemently but they are beingstrongly refuted by an increasing amount of hard data.The truth remains unproven. But the mere possibilityhas set the world's financial markets on edge. SaudiOil Minister Ali Naimi came to Washington on April27th to put out the fires. It was imperative that hecalm everybody's nerves as the markets were screaming,"Say it ain't so!" Naimi said emphatically that therewas nothing to worry about concerning either Saudireserves or ARAMCO's ability to increase production.There was plenty of oil and no need for concern. FTWcovered and reported on that event. Writer and energyexpert Julian Darley noted that there were some veryimportant ears in the room, listening very closely. Healso noted that Naimi's "scientific" data and promisesof large future discoveries did not sit well many whoare well versed in oil production and delivery. [SeeFTW's June 2nd story, "Saudi's Missing Barrels" andour May 2003 story, "Paris Peak Oil Conference RevealsDeepening Crisis." In that story FTW editor MikeRuppert was the first to report on credible newinformation that Saudi Arabia had possibly peaked.]

If anybody has the real data on Saudi fields it iseither ARAMCO or the highest levels of the Saudi royalfamily. The answer to the Saudi peak question willdetermine whether Saudi Arabia really can increaseproduction quickly, as promised. If they can't, thenthe US economy is going to suffer bitterly, and it iscertain that the Saudi monarchy will collapse intochaos. Then the nearby US military will occupy theoilfields and the U.S. will ultimately Balkanize thecountry by carving off the oil fields - which occupyonly a small area near the East coast. That U.S.enclave would then provide sanctuary to the leadingmembers of the royal family who will have agreed tokeep their trillions invested in Wall Street so the USeconomy doesn't collapse. So far the Saudis haven'thad to prove that they could increase production dueto convenient terror attacks at oil fields, and more"debates" within OPEC.====================http://www.thebrigg.net/?p=10

August 29, 2005

Valerie Plame and intel into Saudi Arabia

Over the past couple decades, as global oil demand hasincreased, and we have neared the point at whichglobal oil production will peak (an inherentrequirement of using a depletable fossil fuel), tryingto maintain intelligence information on the true stateof the oil industries of foreign countries has been akey priority of the CIA. If a country’s oil reservesare substantially lower than what they are publicallysaying, our leaders need/want to know, to prefer for apending shortfall. Also, with many nations, the oilindustries are owned and run by the government - sogathering intel from within their oil industrytranslates to gathering intel about many parts of thegovernment, including military issues (such as WMDs).

At least 10 years ago, the CIA created a “frontoperation” - a company that was secretly run by theCIA, and that built close ties with the oil industriesof other nations as a means of gathering intel fromwithin the country. This “cover company” was known asBrewster, Jennings & Associates (BJA). It took yearsfor this cover company to really start paying off asfar as intel, since it took time for the foreigncountries and companies they worked with to starttrusting them. A key company BJA worked with wasARAMCO - Saudi Arabia’s national oil company, whichsupplies somewhere around 12% of global oilproduction.

Agents working in “cover companies” like this areknown as NOCs, or “Non-Official Covers”, and areviewed as some of the most effective and useful agentsthe CIA has, as over time they (and their covercompany) builds substantial trust, and thus is privyto considerable intel. BJA was supplying not onlyintel about the real state of the oil industry in themiddle east, but also various WMD issues that theywere able to gather intel on.

A key NOC in BJA was none other than Valerie Plame,Joseph Wilson’s wife. Plame is of course the CIA agentwho was “outed” by conservative columnist RobertNovak, after high ranking members of the Bushadministration revealed her identity in an apparentyattempt to retaliate for her husband speaking outagainst false administration claims of Iraqi attemptsto buy uranium from Niger. As Karl Rove said, heviewed Wilson’s wife as “fair game” in retaliation.

When Plame was exposed, not only was she herselfexposed, but so was her cover company, Brewster,Jennings & Associates, since she was known to “work”for them. Not only was Plame and every other CIA agentworking within BJA exposed and endangered, the entireBJA operation was destroyed, ending arguably one ofthe most important and effective intel gatheringoperations the CIA had at the time. Effectively, weare now “flying blind” with regards to the state ofthe oil industry in Saudi Arabia and other parts ofthe middle east, as the CIA’s operation that waskeeping track of that vitally important issue, hasbeen completely destroyed as a result ofadministration officials outing Plame.

That is why this issue of outing Plame should not be“forgetten about”, or considered a minor issue. Byouting Plame, not only was she endangered, but everyCIA agent working for BJA was also outed andendangered, and this vitally important operation wasdestroyed. If that’s not treason, what is it?

For more on this, seehttp://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/7/3/16838/88864------------------------------------------

(CNN) -- Saudi security forces killed a top al Qaedaleader in the kingdom shortly after the decapitatedbody of American hostage Paul Johnson Jr. was left ina remote area of Riyadh, security sources said.Abdel Aziz al-Muqrin, the self-proclaimed militaryleader of al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, was killed whiledisposing of Johnson's body, the sources told CNN.But a statement attributed to al Qaeda deniedal-Muqrin's death, saying "Saudi tyrants" trying todiscourage the mujahideen were spreading "false news."There was no way to immediately confirm the denial.Three other terror suspects also were killed,including the second most wanted man in Saudi Arabia,Rakan Alsaykhan, who had close ties with the al Qaedamastermind of the October 2000 bombing of the USSCole.

The other two suspects -- brothers named Bandar andFaisal Aldakheel -- were also on the Saudi "mostwanted" list, the sources saidAll four were slain after a police chase and gunbattlein the Saudi capital, the sources said. Five Saudisecurity forces were killed.Johnson, a 49-year-old Lockheed Martin Corp. employee,was kidnapped in Riyadh last Saturday.His body was found Friday in northern Riyadh soonafter an Islamist Web site posted photographs of hisdecapitated body.

U.S. officials said the remains were "definitely"Johnson's.

One photograph showed a severed head sitting on theback of a headless body.

Al-Muqrin had threatened Tuesday to kill Johnson in 72hours unless the Saudi government released al Qaedaprisoners and Westerners left the Arabian Peninsula."As we promised, we the mujahedeen from the FallujaSquadron slaughtered the American hostage Paul Johnsonafter the deadline we gave to the Saudi tyrants," saida statement on the Web site that has been translatedfrom the Arabic.

"So he got his fair share from this life and for himto taste a bit of what the Muslims have been sufferingfrom Apache helicopter attacks. They were tortured byits missiles."

Johnson worked on Apache attack helicopters in SaudiArabia and had lived there for more than a decade.Johnson's family in the United States, including hisson, daughter, brother and sister, has asked forprivacy. The family issued a statement thankingeveryone "for the outpouring of support they havereceived."

The family also praised the United States and SaudiArabia for doing "everything they possibly could torescue Paul under very difficult circumstances."Lockheed Martin spokesman Tom Jurkowsky said thecompany is "dealing with the family."

"All we can say is we're very distressed, verydisheartened," Jurkowsky said.

President Bush offered his sympathies to Johnson'sfamily.

Speaking in Seattle, Bush also said, "The murder ofPaul shows the evil nature of the enemy we face. ...We must pursue these people and bring them to justicebefore they hurt other Americans."

'We did everything we could to find him'Al-Arabiya first reported al-Muqrin's death. Videofrom the scene showed police moving people away from acrowded residential area of the capital.

"A number of terrorists have been killed," he said."We believe they are part of the al Qaeda network inthe kingdom. We don't know how related they are to themurder of Mr. Johnson."

Shortly after his kidnapping, Paul Johnson Jr. wasshown in this video posted on a Web site linked to alQaeda.

More than 15,000 Saudi security forces, working withU.S. forces, combed areas believed to be al Qaeda hubsin recent days, searching about 2,000 locations forJohnson and his captors, Al-Jubeir said."We did everything we could to find him. And we aredeeply sorry that it was not enough," he said.As news of Johnson's killing spread, U.S. officialscondemned the terrorists.

"The Saudi Arabian government has shown too muchpatience for these terrorist cells and the ideologiesof hate they preach. The United States will no longertolerate Saudi neglect of the extremists andterrorists who live and thrive in the kingdom,"Lautenberg said.

"All further relations with Saudi Arabia must beentirely contingent on the kingdom's progress crackingdown, reigning in and snuffing out its terroristproblem. Deeds -- not words -- must be the benchmarkof Saudi progress in solving the terrorist problemthat threatens its society as much as it threatens ourown."

'A tremendous sadness'

Carol Kalin, the media attaché to the U.S. Embassy inRiyadh, said the embassy and the American community inSaudi Arabia felt "a tremendous sadness at Paul'sdeath."

Kalin said the embassy has been in close contact withJohnson's widow, Noom, who earlier in the daytearfully pleaded for his release.

"What can I do for him?" said Noom, a native ofThailand. "I want to see him come back to see me. Hedon't do anything wrong, he nice with the people. Inever see him have problem in the 10 year here.Never."

Kalin said the embassy is "strongly urging Americansto depart" Saudi Arabia and urging "those Americanswho do choose to remain to exercise the utmostcaution."

"It's tough times out here," she said.Al-Muqrin had claimed responsibility for Johnson'skidnapping and the death of another American, KennethScroggs, on Saturday on behalf of a group called theFalluja Squadron, which claims to have ties to alQaeda.

A senior U.S. State Department official in Washingtontold CNN the United States will now act to "battendown the hatch and [not] give them an easy target.""We want Americans to leave. We want the people thatare there to take appropriate precautions," theofficial said.

The official added that Johnson lived away from theheavily fortified expatriate compounds and "was asitting duck."

The al Qaeda Web statement also said the killing was"a lesson for them to learn for whoever comes to ourcountry, this will be their punishment."Muslim friends of Johnson -- including some clerics --had also pleaded for his release. But the militantswere not swayed.

The Web statement addressed those pleas."A lot of voices were very loud, expressing theiranger for taking a Christian military person as ahostage and killing him while they kept their mouthshut from saying anything supporting those poorMuslims who are in prisons and being tortured by thehands of the cross-believers," the Web site statementsaid, an apparent reference to the abuse of Iraqisheld at Abu Ghraib prison.-------------------------http://www.counterpunch.org/madsen06262004.html

Another Case of Blowback

By WAYNE MADSEN

Saleh Mohammed al Oufi, the new head of "Al Qaeda ofthe Arabian Peninsula," the group that kidnapped andbeheaded American Lockheed Martin helicoptertechnician Paul Johnson, may have received trainingfrom a U.S. military contractor while he was beingtrained as a Saudi public security non commissionedofficer and prison guard. Al Oufi took over as the AlQaeda Saudi branch leader after Saudi security forcesreportedly gunned down his predecessor Abdulaziz alMuqrin. In 1983, Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC),which now owns Dyncorp -- another major U.S. privatemilitary contractor that is training members of theIraqi army and police -- was awarded a contract bySaudi Arabia to develop the multi-hundred milliondollar Saudi Ministry of the Interior System (SAMIS),one of the largest information systems in the worldand one that is used by one of the most secretivepublic security services in the world. SAMIS was alsothe largest contract CSC had ever received to thatpoint.

During the time el Oufi was rising to the rank ofsergeant in the Public Security Service, a part of theSaudi Interior Ministry, he may have received trainingon the sophisticated CSC computer system that, withits 1000 computer terminals throughout the country,was used to monitor convicts and ex-convicts, thoseunder arrest and jailed for crimes, foreigners,religious pilgrims, and religious "miscreants" (atitle used by the Saudis for Shia Muslims, Jews,Christians, and other "infidels.") The system containsthe names and addresses of every foreigner in thecountry legally, something that would be the motherlode of information for any terrorist or would-beterrorist. Al Oufi's possible knowledge of the systemfrom his time as a Public Security official would giveAl Qaeda an unprecedented advantage in its terroristactivities against Westerners, particularly Americans,in Saudi Arabia.

CSC has touted its work for the Saudi Royal Family ina number of its press releases over the years. Basedlargely on its work in Saudi Arabia, the company wasawarded a similar contract in 1991 to rebuild theKuwaiti Ministry of Interior computer system after wasdestroyed by invading Iraqi troops in 1990.

SAMIS automated the functions of all the componentdivisions of the Interior Ministry, including thedepartments of civil status (identification cards),public security (including prisons), border guards,civil defense, passports, general investigations,special security, and the governates.

Al Oufi was eventually promoted to the rank ofsergeant in 1989. During Al Oufi's tenure within thePublic Security Department, CSC began an upgrade ofthe SAMIS system -- a project called SAMIS II. Afterbeing dismissed from the Saudi Public SecurityDepartment in 1995, Al Oufi went to fight with Islamicrebels in Chechnia. He was badly wounded in thebreakaway Russian republic and returned to SaudiArabia for medical treatment. Subsequently, Al Oufimet with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan prior to the911 attacks on the United States. He fled Afghanistanand returned to Saudi Arabia after the Taliban regimewas ousted by American forces.

El Oufi is thought by many Middle East observers tohave continuing contacts within the Saudi securityservices who may have aided and abetted in terroristassassinations, assassination attempts, andkidnappings and executions, including Johnson's. AnIslamist web site claimed that the terrorists whokidnapped Johnson were given Saudi security uniformsand vehicles by Saudi public security personnel.

And in a rather tragic irony, Lockheed Martin, theemployer of the executed contractor Paul Johnson, isbuying Titan, Inc., one of the contractor companiesnamed by U.S. military investigators in the prisonabuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. It was theabuse of Iraqi prisoners in Iraq that the Saudi AlQaeda group cited for its beheading of Johnson. NowJohnson's employer will be taking over the verycontract that U.S. Army investigators claim helpedfacilitate the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigativejournalist and columnist. He served in the NationalSecurity Agency (NSA) during the Reagan administrationand wrote the introduction to Forbidden Truth. He isthe co-author, with John Stanton, of "America'sNightmare: The Presidency of George Bush II." Hisforthcoming book is titled: "Jaded Tasks: Big Oil,Black Ops, and Brass Plates."-------------------------------http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5196406/

MSNBC staff and news service reportsUpdated: 7:31 a.m. PT June 21, 2004RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - A Saudi Arabian official saidMonday that an al-Qaida Web site’s claim that membersof the terrorist network received assistance from thekingdom’s security forces in the kidnapping ofAmerican Paul Johnson Jr. is almost certainly a lie,calling the possibility “very, very remote.”

Saudi foreign affairs adviser Adel al-Jubeir said onNBC’s “Today” show that al-Qaida-related Web siteshave previously claimed to have support within theSaudi security forces in an effort to projectstrength.

“Of course it would be disturbing (if that was true),but we have seen no evidence to that effect,” he said.

Al-Jubeir was responding to a question about a claimon a Web site run by Islamic extremists on Sundaythat Saudi police sympathizers provided cars anduniforms so the militants could fake a roadblock andsnare Johnson, the American defense worker whomal-Qaida claimed to have beheaded on Friday.

Saudi criticizes U.S. media

Al-Jubeir also criticized the American media forreporting messages posted on extremist Web sites.

“It is as if the information minister of SaddamHussein, everything he said people would take asfact,” he said.

He also shrugged off questions about why it took solong to find Abdulaziz al-Moqrin, the allegedringleader of the terrorist cell blamed for Johnson’smurder as well as a number of deadly attacks againstWestern targets.

Al-Jubeir noted that the U.S. military has beenhunting unsuccessfully for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi inIraq and has been unable to track down fugitiveal-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden for years.

He also said that Saudi authorities were continuing tohunt for Johnson’s body so that it can be returned tohis grieving family.

Claim says militants posed as police

The Web site posted what it said was a statement byal-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula saying that Saudisecurity forces provided uniforms and police cars tomilitants who then set up a fake checkpoint to kidnapJohnson. The militants say they posed as police tostop Johnson’s car, anesthetized him and carried himto another car.

“A number of the cooperators who are sincere to theirreligion in the security apparatus donated thoseclothes and the police cars. We ask God to reward themand that they use their energy to serve Islam and themujahedeen,” the article said.

A separate claim on the Web site attributed toal-Moqrin said Johnson was targeted because of hiswork on Apache attack helicopters for Lockheed Martin.Al-Moqrin and three other militants were killed Fridayin a shootout with Saudi security forces after theyapparently beheaded Johnson.

One security officer was killed and two were woundedin the gunbattle, the official Saudi news agencyreported.

Police cars, armored vehicles and a large contingentof emergency forces blockaded the al-Malaz area ofRiyadh Sunday in a search for suspects, securityofficials said. Witnesses saw suspects fleeing into ahouse in the neighborhood after police fired at themat a traffic light.

Blockade lifted after police fire on suspectsHours later, the blockade was lifted and securityforces left. It was unclear whether anyone wasarrested.

On Sunday night, scores of Saudi men, mostly in their20s and 30s, paid visits to the bullet-pocked gasstation where al-Moqrin and the three others werekilled.

“This should be turned into a national monument,” saidMohamed Ibrahim Shakir. “Every Saudi should come hereand pray to God. We got rid of these terrorists.”

Ibrahim al-Shamari, who was tending the station, saidthe militant leader was shooting at security forcesfrom behind a refrigerator when he was killed.

One security officer was killed and two were woundedin the shootout, the official Saudi news agencyreported.

June 18: The top al-Qaida figure in Saudi Arabia,Abdulaziz al-Moqrin, has been killed in a shootout.NBC's Lisa Myers reports.

Nightly News

Al-Moqrin is believed to have had a leading role inthe recent rise of militant violence in the kingdom.Dozens of people have been killed in a string ofbombings and attacks targeting foreigners.

Saudi King Fahd said Sunday that militants would notsucceed in their aim to harm the kingdom.

“We will not allow this destructive bunch, led bydeviant thought, to harm the security of this nationor affect its stability,” he said in a speech to theadvisory Shura Council.

Johnson was seized June 12, the same day Islamicmilitants shot and killed Kenneth Scroggs of Laconia,N.H., in his garage in Riyadh. Earlier that week,militants in the capital also shot and killed Irishcameraman Simon Cumbers, who was filming for theBritish Broadcasting Corp., and another American,Robert Jacobs, of Murphysboro, Ill.

Johnson’s captors said they would kill him on Fridayunless Saudi Arabia released jailed al-Qaidamilitants.

Deseret Morning News, Wednesday, December 01, 2004Couple's slaying is still unsolvedBrazilian suspect freed; children live in Spanish ForkBy Jesse Hyde?Deseret Morning NewsA year has passed since a Utah couple was brutallybludgeoned to death in their posh Rio de Janeirocondominium, and the prime suspect in the case remainsfree.

Family members gather at graveside service for Toddand Michelle Staheli in Spanish Fork last year.

Stuart Johnson, Deseret Morning NewsTodd Staheli, 39, and his wife, Michelle, 36, ofSpanish Fork, were killed on Nov. 30 of last year asthey slept in their high-security home, according toBrazilian police authorities.

In April, a 20-year-old handyman confessed to using acrowbar to commit the grisly murders, but the next dayhe recanted the confession, saying two otherBrazilians committed the crime after he let them in.The handyman, Jociel Conceicao dos Santos, lived withthe Stahelis' neighbor. He was arrested in April afterallegedly trying to break into another condominium inthe complex where the Stahelis lived.

Dos Santos said he killed the couple because Staheli,an executive with Shell Oil, had called him a racialslur. But after relatives said Todd Staheli didn'teven speak Portuguese, Dos Santos recanted hisconfession. He was placed in Brazil's witnessprotection program.

A few weeks later, police again identified Dos Santosas the prime suspect, saying DNA from blood found onhis shorts and backpack matched that of the Stahelis.Dos Santos said the DNA evidence had been planted andthat he had confessed because police had pressured himto.

The Staheli family in Utah has been skeptical that DosSantos had anything to do with the murder."It would be nice if they found out who did it," saidTodd Staheli's uncle, Elias Staheli. "But I don'tthink they ever will."

The murder has generated intense media attention andspeculation in Brazil. Some still wonder if Staheliwas killed because of his position as an oil executivewith Shell. There were rumors the Stahelis hadreceived threatening phone calls related to aninternational oil pipeline.

But Shell officials say they were never alerted of anythreats. Before moving to Brazil, Staheli had workedfor Shell in London, Switzerland, Ukraine and SaudiArabia.

Initially, investigators thought the couple wasmurdered during a botched robbery attempt, but littlewas taken from the house. Even a $15,000 gold Rolexwas left sitting on the nightstand near the couple'sbed.

Elias Staheli said the family is trying to move on. Hesaid his brother, Todd's father, was relieved to leaveBrazil with the couple's four children, ages 3 to 13.The grandparents have custody of the children and livewith them in Spanish Fork.

"I don't think my brother dwells on it too much. Hedoesn't want to go on with resentment in his life," hesaid.-------------------washingtonpost.com

Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey, the JusticeDepartment's second in command, says he's got somehomework to do, learning about Bethesda's LockheedMartin Corp. before he becomes its top lawyer inOctober.

But the man who brought criminal charges againstdomestic entrepreneur Martha Stewart and investmentbanker Frank P. Quattrone has become a quick study inhis current job, fielding what he calls "a constantfirestorm" of requests from more than 110,000prosecutors around the nation.

Comey, 44, will manage a team of 140 lawyers for thePentagon's biggest defense contractor, replacing FrankH. Menaker Jr., a prominent figure in the Washingtonarea legal community who worked for Lockheed or itspredecessor companies for 35 years.

Comey said in an interview that he chose Lockheed fromamong a number of opportunities partly because of thecompany's clean reputation. He said he also preferredhaving a single client rather than taking the coursepursued by many other former prosecutors -- joining alaw firm and defending some of the same sorts ofclients in private practice that he targeted duringhis long government tenure."It strikes me as a logical extension of what I donow, which is help provide legal advice and manage ahuge entity," Comey said. "I like what they do, I liketheir values and I like their leadership. They are acompany focused on compliance."

Charles W. Garrison of District-based Garrison &Sisson Inc., a recruiter, said Comey was "pretty muchable to write his own ticket," given his credibilityand his longstanding contacts within federal agencies."While Lockheed Martin hasn't had a lot of problems,it's probably a very good defensive acquisition forthem, and an offensive acquisition for them as far asComey being able to open doors," Garrison said.Lockheed executives said Comey's record in both thepublic and private sectors drew them to him. "JamesComey brings a wealth of talent and experience toLockheed Martin, and in particular exceptionallitigation expertise and leadership skills," saidThomas C. Greer, a company spokesman. "He also hasvaluable insight into commercial litigation, havingbeen a partner in a private law firm."

Although Comey had a stint at the Virginia law firmMcGuireWoods LLP, he has spent most of his career ingovernment service, as a federal prosecutor in NewYork, Richmond, and Washington. He played a keyleadership role in the president's Corporate FraudTask Force, created after the collapse of Enron Corp.and WorldCom Inc.

Life inside Lockheed, which employs about 130,000people around the world and posted sales of $35.5billion last year, may involve a change of pace forComey, whose affable manner serves as counterpoint tohis 6-foot-8-inch stature.

Still, he is not the first Justice Department officialto choose a high-profile job inside a corporation.Former deputy attorney general Larry D. Thompson nowworks as general counsel at PepsiCo Inc. Clinton-eradeputy Jamie Gorelick worked for years at Fannie Mae.William P. Barr, former attorney general underPresident George H.W. Bush, is general counsel atVerizon Communications Inc.

"There is a different set of dynamics at work inside acompany," said George J. Terwilliger III, a partner atWhite & Case LLP in Washington who was deputy attorneygeneral under President George H.W. Bush. "Jim is sointelligent and perceptive that I suspect he will be avery quick study on those issues."

Comey's friends said his tough-on-corruptionreputation will be an asset to Lockheed, which hascomplained in recent years that it was the victim ofimproper behavior by Boeing Co., its rival for defensecontracts. Pentagon acquisition official Darleen A.Druyun negotiated a job with Boeing while stilloverseeing the company's contracts with the Air Force.Druyun later admitted to having shown Boeingfavoritism over Lockheed, and she was sentenced tonine months in prison.

"He is seen by people in the department as a careerguy, not a person with a political axe to grind," saidEric H. Holder Jr., who was deputy attorney general inthe Clinton administration and is now a partner atCovington & Burling LLP in the District. Holder saidComey demonstrated his independence by appointingaggressive Chicago prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald, alongtime friend, to probe the politically sensitiveleak of CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity.

Some critics said Comey's new position is an exampleof the inherent sensitivity when high-level officialsjump into lucrative jobs at companies that depend ongovernment largesse.

Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project onGovernment Oversight, said there do not appear to beconflicts of interest between Comey's work at theJustice Department and his new job at Lockheed Martin.But, she asked, "isn't there an incentive created notto go after these companies, because you have, in theback of your mind, 'I may want to work for themsomeday'? That's at the heart of the insidious natureof the revolving door, and that's why we really haveto try to fix this problem."

Comey said he had never dealt with Lockheed Martinduring his years as deputy attorney general or in histenure as U.S. attorney in Manhattan, perhaps thebusiest prosecutor's office in the country.

Lockheed Martin's board of directors is well-stockedwith prominent former government officials, includingE. C. "Pete" Aldridge Jr., former undersecretary ofdefense; Gen. Joseph W. Ralston, former vice chairmanof the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Adm. James O. Ellis Jr.,former commander of the U.S. Strategic Command;Gwendolyn S. King, former commissioner of the SocialSecurity Administration. The company also has many offormer government officials in its executive ranks andhas hired numerous former members of the House andSenate to lobby on its behalf.

Among the cases Comey may face once he takes over is asuit filed against the company last week by the EqualEmployment Opportunity Commission that accusesLockheed of ignoring an employee's complaints ofracial harassment. The suit is based on theallegations of Charles Daniels, an electrician whoworked at Lockheed facilities and claims he wassubjected to racist jokes and threats by co-workersand a supervisor. A company spokesman said last weekthat Lockheed attorneys were still reviewing the caseand were not prepared to comment on it.Holder, the former Clinton-era official, said Menaker,who is retiring, has been "one of the deans ofAmerican general counsel."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/07/AR2005080700584_pf.html---------------------------ttp://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:VRUJIeQN5IAJ:www.ww4report.com/node/904+lockheed+and+valerie+plame&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=6Skull & Bonesman to oversee Valerie Plame case?Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Mon, 08/08/2005 - 22:54.An interesting development in the extremelycontentious Valerie Plame affair: Deputy AttorneyGeneral James Comey, the only Justice Departmentofficial overseeing special counsel PatrickFitzgerald's investigation into the leak scandal, isleaving to take a job in the private sector. And hislikely successor, Associate Attorney General RobertMcCallum, is—like the incumbent president whoseadministration may be responsible for the leak—a YaleSkull & Bonesman! Via TruthOut:

?Leak Investigation: An Oversight Issue??By MichaelIsikoffNewsweek

15 August 2005 Issue

The departure this week of Deputy Attorney GeneralJames Comey, who has accepted the post of generalcounsel at Lockheed Martin, leaves a question mark inthe probe into who leaked the identity of CIAoperative Valerie Plame. Comey was the only officialoverseeing special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's leakinvestigation.

With Attorney General Alberto Gonzales recused,department officials say they are still trying toresolve whom Fitzgerald will now report to. AssociateAttorney General Robert McCallum is "likely" to benamed as acting deputy A.G., a DOJ official who askednot to be identified because of the sensitivity of thematter tells NEWSWEEK. But McCallum may be seen ashaving his own conflicts: he is an old friend ofPresident Bush's and a member of his Skull and Bonesclass at Yale.

One question: how much authority Comey's successorwill have over Fitzgerald. When Comey appointedFitzgerald in 2003, the deputy granted himextraordinary powers to act however he saw fit-butnoted he still had the right to revoke Fitzgerald'sauthority. The questions are pertinent because lawyersclose to the case believe the probe is in its finalstages.

Fitzgerald recently called White House aide KarlRove's secretary and his former top aide to testifybefore the grand jury. They were asked why there wasno record of a phone call from Time reporter MattCooper, with whom Rove discussed the CIA agent, says asource close to Rove who requested anonymity becausethe FBI asked participants not to comment. The sourcesays the call went through the White Houseswitchboard, not directly to Rove.

Note: It was also James Comey, then Manhattan USAttorney, who threatened to subpoena WW4 REPORT in2003 over our interview with activist attorney andterror war defendant Lynne Stewart.---------------------------------http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/

May 31, 2006 -- Murdered Canadian diplomat anotherpossible victim of Valerie Plame Wilson/BrewsterJennings disclosure. On May 26, Italian policediscovered the badly decomposed body of Canadiandiplomat Lewis B. Miskell in a Naples sewer. Miskell,49, had been stabbed in the abdomen. Intelligencesources report that Miskell, who assigned to theCanadian embassy in Vienna, Austria, was the attacheresponsible for liaison to UN specialized agencies inVienna. The most important UN agency in the Austriancapital is the International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA), the nexus for nuclear talks with Iran and asignificant activity surrounding the activities of thedefunct Brewster Jennings Associates, the covertweapons counter-proliferation front company outed bythe Bush White House. The clampdown on informationabout Miskell by the pro-Bush Stephen Harpergovernment in Canada indicates that Miskell may havehad an intelligence function and was operating under"official cover" at the Canadian embassy in Vienna.

Miskell traveled from London to Naples on March 6 andwas supposedly on vacation. He was due to return toLondon on March 14 but failed to show for his flight.There has been no explanation from Canada why Miskell,who was posted in Vienna, was traveling between Italyand London. There are direct flights between Viennaand Naples. Miskell was last spotted at the Naplestrain station. A Nigerian national named Desmond Anywiwas later discovered with six of Miskell's creditcards, which he said he found on the floor of theNaples train station. Police have not charged Anywifor robbery and there has been no explanation frompolice why Miskell was found with his wristwatch andother personal effects.

Computer records showed that Miskell made onlineinquiries about several hotels in Naples prior to histrip but did not reserve a room in them nor did hevisit them. Miskell had a history of photographing"historical" sites in various countries. Suspiciously,unnamed "police" sources in Europe began spreadinginformation that Miskell, who lived alone in Vienna,spent a lot of time on Internet chat rooms trying tomeet people and stayed in the seediest parts ofEuropean cities, including the area in Naples where hewas investigating hotels.

Canada has been a source of tritium, a nuclear weaponscomponent, for Iran. The Canadian Nuclear SafetyCommission (CNSC) has been known to be lax for itssale of nuclear components to nations abroad. Miskellwas posted at the Canadian embassy in Washington, DCduring the mid-1990s.

In what may be a related matter, the Swiss FederalProsecutor's Offiece has complained to the UnitedStates that the Bush administration has failed tocooperate with Switzerland's efforts to track the A QKhan nuclear proliferation network. The Bushadministration's multiple refusals to assistSwitzerland in probing the Khan network, which was amajor target of the CIA's Counter-ProliferationDivision, Brewster Jennings Associates, and ValeriePlame Wilson, was revealed by former UN weaponsinspector David Albright. Switzerland arrested threemembers of the Tinner family -- Friedrich, Urs, andMarco -- for illegally supplying centrifuges from aMalaysian company to Libya. Urs Tinner has beenrumored to have been a U.S. intelligence asset.Switzerland has received cooperation in its probe fromSoutheast Asian nations, including Malaysia andThailand, and South Africa. All three are key transitpoints for nuclear materials involving Russian-IsraeliMafia assets who, in turn, are linked to top membersof the Bush administration, including Vice PresidentDick Cheney.